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Missa Summe Trinitati

Introduction

Compared to the anonymous Mass, the Missa Summe trinitati unfolds in a series of musical events that is at once more leisurely and more complex. Resistant to easy comprehension, Frye’s texture becomes, on closer listening, a source of endless fascination. The stylistic consistency of his idiom is entirely belied by the sense of freedom and invention that he brings to bear on it: to become acquainted with the style of the Missa Summe trinitati is to be gradually absorbed into a perpetual interplay of melodic and rhythmic ideas held in check by a subtle sense of timing. Repetition, sometimes of melodic motifs, but much more typically of brief rhythmic patterns, plays a major role in Frye’s articulation of musical space, at one and the same time slowing down the pace of musical events and drawing attention to key moments. Such repetitions emerge increasingly from the texture with each hearing, drawing attention to themselves in different ways by being melodically exact or varied, flowing with or against the prevailing metre, appearing in one voice or several, and so on. Even the most basic idea can, in Frye’s hands, lend his music a sense of cohesion and structural poise out of all proportion to its simplicity. The Credo Summe trinitati provides a classic example: a short-long repeated-note motif first heard in the tenor in the second bar is immediately repeated in the top line and thereafter pervades the whole movement. Far from becoming tedious, though, this simple motif is treated with the utmost taste and restraint, by turn saturating the texture, occurring in isolation and disappearing altogether. In fact repeated notes play a major role in the structure and pacing of the entire cycle: the repeated d’s of the cantus firmus, recurring at regular intervals in each movement, become an aural ‘tag’ which the composer appears to exploit to a greater or lesser extent depending on the degree of emphasis required at any given moment.

Recordings

'It is difficult to imagine more lucid or elegant performances. In a very short time, The Binchois Consort have established themselves as one of the v ...'Excellent. It is a perfect example of that all-too-rare marriage of first-rate scholarship and high-quality musicianship' (The Daily Telegraph)» More

Creator of all creatures, Lord, have mercy upon us, Blot out our crimes and ceaslessly have mercy. Suffer not thine handiwork to perish, but forgive and have mercy on it. Christ, thy Father’s only begotten, born of the Virgin, have mercy upon us, Who redeemedst from death with thy blood the world that was lost, have mercy, In pity hearken unto the prayers of those now calling unto thee, gave mercy, Life-giving Spirit, fill us with they grace, have mercy, That flowest unceasingly from the Father and the Son, have mercy upon us. Holy Trinity, threefold unity, to be adored in all persons together, undo the chains of our sins, redeeming us from death. Now let us all cry out with sweetly flowing voices, ‘God, have mercy’.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise you. We bless you. We adore you. We glorify you. We give you thanks for your great glory. Lord God, king of heaven, God the Father almighty, Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Lord God, lamb of God, Son of the Father, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you who take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you only are holy. You only are Lord. You only are most high, Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

I believe in one God, Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all visible and invisible things. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was also crucified for us: under Pontius Pilate he died and was buried. And on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. And ascended into heaven: he sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead: there will be no end to his kingdom. And in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life: who comes from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is adored and glorified; who spoke through the prophets. And in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.